It is well known in the solar cell art that most solar cells are able to convert only a small portion of solar energy into electricity. Also, because of the extensive background information (due at least in part to the semiconductor industry) and the small expense and availability, the most prominent material utilized in the industry is silicon. Further, silicon based solar cells can be easily and inexpensively integrated into silicon circuits for collection and other functions.
One of the major causes of the inefficiency of silicon is energy lost due to thermal processes in silicon. Thermal losses are directly related to the energy of incoming photons and how much greater that incoming energy is than the bandgap of the cell material. Silicon material has a relatively low bandgap and, therefore, much of the solar energy is lost. Use of higher bandgap materials to absorb and convert higher energy photons would result in lower overall thermalization losses. Also, it is very inefficient to provide solar cells using only higher bandgap materials, since most of the lower energy is lost. However, it is generally difficult to integrate higher bandgap materials with or into silicon devices.
It would be highly advantageous, therefore, to remedy the foregoing and other deficiencies inherent in the prior art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved high efficiency solar cell.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a high efficiency rare earth solar cell including transition layers of IIIB material between collection layers.